Harper’s Index

Number of the 65 international trade disputes settled through the WTO that led to a change in national policy or law: 59¹

Number of the 10 disputes involving environmental or public heath issues that led to a weakening of national laws: 10²

Days after China announced it would begin acquiring offensive weapons that it was accepted into the WTO last fall: 7³

Maximum range at which China North Industries' new “portable laser disturber” can “injure or dizzy the eyes,” in miles: 6⁴

Estimated tons of high-performance explosives that the Irish Republican Army must turn in by May: 2.7⁵

Percentage of Chechnya's air force destroyed last September when Russia bombed a single plane: 100⁶

Days after Ukraine reopened a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl last November that a water leak forced a shutdown: 6⁷

Megawatts by which the world's nuclear-power capacity changed during 1998: -230⁸

Megawatts by which the world's wind-power capacity changed HarpersIndex2000-02: +2,200⁹

Percentage increase since 1994 in annual federal spending on highways and mass transit, respectively: 50, 33¹⁰

Ratio of the number of Americans killed in traffic accidents in 1998 to the number killed by medical errors: 1:1¹¹

Number of Africans used to test a U.S. polio vaccine made with primate kidney cells in the 1950s: 1,000,000¹²

Number of the 46 Africans found to be HIV-positive before 1981 who lived within 90 miles of the vaccine trials: 45¹³

Projected age to which the AIDS epidemic will lower the life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa by next year: 45¹⁴

Factor by which the pregnancy-related death rate among African-American women exceeds that of white women: 3¹⁵

Chance that an African American believes that blacks will never obtain equality in the U.S.: 1 in 2¹⁶

Hours it took a Tennessee jury last December to decide that the assassination of Martin Luther King was a conspiracy: 2¹⁷

Years after 1993's Baby Jessica custody ruling that both her birth parents and her adoptive parents filed for divorce: 6¹⁸

Ratio of the divorce rate in New York State in 1998 to the rate in Arkansas: 2:3¹⁹

Percentage of New Yorkers who say they have already decided which Senate candidate to vote for in November: 92²⁰

Percentage change in the number of marijuana arrests since Bill Clinton became president: +56²¹

Percentage change in Colombia's estimated cocaine production since 1990: +154 ²²

Number of kidnappings reported in Colombia in the first nine months of last year: 2,283 ²³

Hours during which Rio de Janeiro drivers may legally run red lights in order to avoid being carjacked: 10 P.M.-5 A.M.²⁴

Maximum number of years to which a Burmese citizen may be sentenced for owning an unregistered computer: 15²⁵

Percentage change in the stock price of Microsoft rival Red Hat in the five weeks after the antitrust ruling: +218²⁶

Ratio of eToys' 1999 net sales through last September to what it spent on marketing and advertising: 2:3²⁷

Ratio of the price of a 30-second Super Bowl ad to what Pizza Hut paid last fall for an ad on a Russian space rocket: 2:1²⁸

Seconds by which a “slingshot” maneuver performed by a NASA probe last August slowed the Earth's rotation: 10 -12²⁹

Number of feet by which Arctic sea ice has thinned since 1976: 4³⁰

Number of colonies of Antarctic Adélie penguins that have disappeared since 1988: 11³¹

Number of U.S. children treated for sledding injuries in 1998: 46,067³²

Rank of self-inflicted wounds among the top injuries for which teenage girls were hospitalized in New York State in 1998: 1³³

Rank of assault among the top causes of injuries for which teenage boys were hospitalized that year: 1³⁴

Estimated profit earned by New York State last year on collect calls made by prisoners: $21,000,000³⁵

Chance that a drug user holds a full-time job, according to a federal study released last year: 7 in 10³⁶

Months after George W. Bush became a candidate last year that the study was released: 3³⁷

Number of the two memoirs published by GOP presidential candidates last year that use the phrase “toga party”: 2³⁸

Number of textbook reproductions of George Washington Crossing the Delaware retouched by a Georgia school last year: 2,322³⁹

Number of parental complaints that prompted the school to decide that Washington's watch fob resembled genitalia: 0⁴⁰

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